The Royal Orchid Chain of Hotels forays into homestays segment

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June 13, 2022

The Royal Orchid hotel network includes over seventy-two hotels spread over India in approximately forty-eight different locations. The brand, which was previously focused on luxury hotels, has recently expanded into the premium home-stay industry with Saptpuri in Varanasi.

Varanasi is an ideal setting for Royal Orchid’s budding venture because it prides itself on giving warm Indian hospitality to its guests.

The name Sapta Puri is derived from the birthplaces of religious and spiritual masters, places where Gods have descended as avatars (incarnations), such as Ayodhya, where Rama was born, and places that have been considered Nitya tirthas, naturally endowed with spiritual powers, such as Varanasi and Haridwar, since ancient times.

“So, with Saptpuri managed by Royal Orchid Hotels Ltd, you are guaranteed the best of both worlds. You can enjoy the tranquil presence of the mellifluous Ganga flowing by you, lit up every evening by the coordinated movement of holy lamps across the expanse of its many Ghats, and lose yourself in spiritual exploration. You may also use the tranquility to catch up on all the pending work that has boarded up over time. Come, stay at Saptpuri. Make it your home for a while,” the official statement read.

DLF to invest Rs 3,000 crores over six years in retail push

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June 10, 2022

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The country’s largest real estate developer, DLF, is planning to add around 5 million sq ft in the next 5-6 years with an investment of about ₹3,000 crores, a senior executive said.

In addition to retail space in its upcoming residential and commercial developments, the majority of which will be inaugurated this year, the company has planned malls in Gurugram and Goa, as well as high streets in Gurugram.

“We believe that organised retail will continue to grow faster than retail as a sector,” said Sriram Khattar, MD, rental business, DLF. “Our development programme should double our retail portfolio over the next five to six years.”

Goa, India’s richest state by per capita income, is one of the destinations. “Our development in Goa will provide a high-quality retail experience to the population of Goa,” he said. DLF Mall of India, Gurugram, is in the planning stage.

DLF Mall of India, Gurugram, is likely to be about one and a half times bigger than the DLF Mall of India, Noida. “We are introducing a new concept of high-street shopping that primarily caters to the needs of the residential population in that area and brings high-quality, organised retail to their doorstep,” Khattar said.

“Work on one such centre has commenced in DLF 5 in Gurugram and we are planning a similar format in New Gurugram and West Delhi.” The Gurugram mall will be about 3 million sq ft, while the mall in Goa will cover around 5.5 lakh sq ft.

Analysts’ presentations show that footfalls across the company’s malls have recovered to 95% of pre-Covid levels.

“We have strong relations with tenant partners and we are confident of their support in future expansions. Apart from stand-alone retail destinations, we have created strong office amenities blocks for our office tenants,” said Pushpa Bector, executive director of DLF Retail.

“This will make it exciting for office-goers to come back to work,” Bector added.

Hyphen bags $1mn in a pre-seed round from investors

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June 9, 2022

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Hyphen, formerly known as Dwellingo, announced that it had raised $1 million (around Rs. 8 crores) in a pre-seed round from investors. According to the company, the revenues will be used to develop the business in new markets.

In the pre-seed round, notable Silicon Valley angels, including Sriram Puthucode, former VP at Symantec Global, participated in the fundraising, including a combination of equity and minority debt.

According to the company, the new funds will be used to expand into new areas, develop new goods, and integrate technology and automation.

Rishi Sreedharan, Co-Founder & CEO of Hyphen, said, “People are drawn towards experience-focused, de-densified living; the pandemic helped accelerate this push. In fact, 76 percent of consumers are more likely to spend on experiences than materialistic things. As people move back into the city, they are looking for something different, and the run-of-the-mill shared-living experience will no longer cut it.”

By 2023, Hyphen hopes to have 6,000 beds and be present in five markets, beginning with Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, and Delhi-NCR. In August 2021, it opened its first property.

The co-living operator was founded by Anirudh Rao, Grishma Reddy, Rishi Sreedharan, and Samarth Gowda in June last year.

Top engineers in no hurry to accept every job offer

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June 9, 2022

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Even as layoff concerns spread throughout the Indian startup scene and investment halted, individuals with high-end IT skills continue to look for opportunities, with placement firms still struggling with a low offer acceptance rate.

According to placement consultants, the average offer acceptance rate in skills such as full-stack engineers, data engineers, frontend engineers, SRE/DevOps, data scientists, and backend engineers is just over 50%, with one out of two candidates trashing the offer letter.

Take full-stack developers, for example, who design high software applications. According to data from specialist staffing firm Xpheno, these professionals’ average offer acceptance rate was 73% in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021, decreased to 53% in FY22, and is now around 50%.

The trend can be seen in profiles like SRE/DevOps, data scientists, frontend engineers, data scientists, and backend engineers, where the offer acceptance percentage has dropped from 80% to 50%.

“The sustained positive hiring action from other cohorts of the tech sector continues to maintain a situation with more offers chasing lesser top talent,” said Anil Ethanur, cofounder of Xpheno. “The offer acceptance rates have not reached pre-pandemic levels and there’s quite a distance to cover to catch up,” he said.

“In top-level tech skills, candidates are still calling the shots. Out of every 100 offers rolled out, about 60 accept; of this only 35 join the new job,” said Anshuman Das, CEO of CareerNet and Longhouse Consulting. One of the main reasons for the high drop-out for these specialized technology roles is the fungibility of their skills. These people are in high demand across global captives, IT services, products, ITeS and consulting companies, job market experts said. “The demand-supply gulf remains high enough to give talent the upper hand on negotiations. This is evident with the low offer acceptance rates recorded across top skills for the key hiring sectors,” said Ethanur.

The startup funding freeze did not affect the packages available to these individuals. According to Xpheno data, new hires for these tech professions often command more than 100% of their present salary packages. With the expansion of job opportunities in these areas, candidates’ expectations have also risen. For example, a full-stack engineer with 4-7 years of experience might expect a pay rise of 70-120% from current levels, which is greater than the 25-35% expected by candidates last year. The same can be applied to other specialized tech positions.

Even as the number of available positions in firms decreases and companies reduce counteroffers, job market experts predict that demand for specialized tech skills will stay high despite a supply shortage.

“It will become more about skill-based hiring and less about roles. Specialised technology professionals will continue to remain in high demand,” said Renee McGowan, president of Asia, Middle East, and Africa region at Mercer.

Kissht raises $80mn, to enter into challenger card segment

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June 8, 2022

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Kissht, a consumer lending fintech company, has raised $80 million in a fresh round of funding headed by Vertex Growth and the Brunei Investment Agency.

The financing included existing investors Vertex Ventures SEA India and Endiya Partners.

According to two people familiar with the matter, the latest round valued the fintech company at close to $500 million.

Along with the fundraising, the business said that it would enter the challenger card segment, offering its buy-now-pay-later cards called Ring in association with RBL and SBM Bank to customers linked with a credit line.

According to the company, the funds will be used to improve product design, scale-up card issuances to 10 million in the next 12-18 months, and invest in expanding its book size while upgrading its technological backend.

Kissht, which was founded in 2015, now offers users a credit line and unsecured personal loans. It has about 3.2 million users on its platform, of which more than 50% are active monthly.

The company distributes health-related insurance and counts Aditya Birla Health Insurance as a partner. However, the vertical continues to be a small part of the overall revenues.

The platform disburses Rs 580 crore in loans every month on average, with an average ticket size of Rs 13,500. The company has a Rs 900 crore active loan book.

“We have been strongly focussed on credit, and thought payments were a natural extension to our offerings. The idea behind launching a card was so that customers can use the credit in a seamless manner for all services, products and even small ticket offline transactions such as groceries,” Ranvir Singh, founder and chief executive of Kissht, said. “This helps customers use the credit for recurring transactions and improves engagement, rather than a one-time personal loan which is very episodic.”

Kissht will issue these cards through its non-banking finance company (NBFC) arm.

Singh added that the company is also focused on acquiring users through offline channels by embedding its credit offerings at the point of sale in mid-scale department stores.

“The founders of Kissht have a unique understanding of the needs of the new-to-credit population of India. The multiservice credit and payments offering will revolutionise the way millennials and other new borrowers use and think about credit,” said James Lee, managing partner of Vertex Growth.

The company’s total consolidated revenue was Rs 410 crore in 2021-22, and profits were Rs 55 crore.

IHCL signs Vivanta Hotel in Jammu; to open by year-end

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June 8, 2022

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Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) announced the signing of an 88-room Vivanta hotel in Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir. The existing hotel, located in the heart of the city, will be upgraded to the Vivanta brand post-renovation, said IHCL.

The KC Group has a management contract for the hotel, which is expected to open after the renovation at the end of 2022.

“The signing of this hotel is in line with IHCL’s vision of expanding our presence in key domestic markets. Jammu has significant tourism and commercial potential. Vivanta Jammu will be the first IHCL hotel in the city. We are delighted to partner with the KC Group,” IHCL Executive Vice President – Real Estate and Development – Suma Venkatesh said.

Flexiloans bags $90 million in Series B funding

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June 7, 2022

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FlexiLoans.com, an MSME-focused fintech lending platform, announced that it had raised nearly USD 90 million in Series B funding from prominent investors such as Denmark-based PE firm MAJ Invest, UK-based fintech investor Fasanara Capital, and Dr Harry Banga and Yogesh Mahansaria’s family offices.

This investment round gives the company a significant runway for expansion when the government is pushing fintech, particularly for the MSME sector, according to a press release.

“The capital raised will fuel FlexiLoans’s growth ambitions as it plans to focus on technology development and more than double its MSME book via its Co-lending, BNPL and Supply Chain Finance platforms. Having built technology assets for platform lending, pricing and customer journeys, it will continue to invest in cutting edge technology to strengthen its customer journey automation, risk management & analytics capabilities,” FlexiLoans added.

This is Fasanara Capital’s first SME fintech investment in India and MAJ Invest’s 3rd this year. MAJ Invest and Fasanara Capital have invested in several well-known Fintechs and Non-Bank Financial Companies worldwide. Asia Link Advisors and Axis Capital advised the fundraising.

“We currently disburse over Rs 100 crore of loans monthly and plan to double this run rate over the next year, with our co-lending platform contributing a significant share of growth,” said cofounder, Deepak Jain.

FlexiLoans.com has previously obtained USD 20 million in seed funding and Series A funding from Sanjay Nayar and other prominent bankers. With more than 120 eco-system partners, including e-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra, and others for financing sellers/vendors affiliated with these platforms, the company is now one of India’s major embedded finance firms.

Snapchat to display local restaurants nearby in Snap Map

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June 7, 2022

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Snapchat has partnered with the restaurant review website The Infatuation to help Snap Map users find the best local restaurants.

In more than 50 cities worldwide, Snapchatters will now immediately receive Infatuation reviews in Place Profiles.

Snapchat introduced Layers as a new way for Snapchatters to locate things to do with their friends on Snap Map last year.

“Within just a few months, our first two Layers alone were used over 100 million times,” Snapchat said.

Snapchatters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, Denver, D.C, and London can use the Layer to find top Infatuation-approved restaurants nearby.

They need to “head to our new menu in the upper right hand corner of the Snap Map, and tap The Infatuation icon”.

After activating the Layer, Snapchatters will be able to browse all of their favourite local restaurants, share their favourites with others via chat, and add places to their favourites to return later.

Snapchat teamed with Ticketmaster earlier this year to develop a new way for Snap Map users to discover live entertainment events.

According to the company, Snap Map is used by more than 250 million people each month.

Physis Capital plans to begin investing in promising startups by Oct

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June 6, 2022

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According to a top official, venture capital fund Physis Capital expects to close its first round of funding of at least $10-15 million from investors in the next four months, and to reach its goal of $50 million in a year, while capital deployment into promising startups could begin as early as October this year.

Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), a CXO-driven angel investing platform, unveiled its fund Physis Capital earlier this year to invest in firms seeking pre-Series A to Series B capital.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India recently gave its clearance to the fund, which wants to establish a portfolio of 15-20 startups with a minimum ticket size of USD 2 million.

“Physis Capital may be new, but not angel investment platform IPV. We have proven ourselves over the last four years…and that is where commitments have come in for Physis Capital,” Ankur Mittal, Partner, Physis Capital, said.

The new fund will have a corpus of $50 million with a greenshoe option of another USD 25 million. It will actively invest in vertical commerce, consumer tech, social/content creator, business to business SaaS (Software as a Service) and enterprise tech.

Physis Capital will also invest in companies in the IPV portfolio. As much as 50 per cent of the fund size will be deployed to startups within the IPV portfolio.

“While at IPV, we typically do seed to pre-series A (round), in case of Physis Capital we will be writing pre-series A to Series B cheques,” he said.

According to Mittal, many family offices and prominent investors have shown interest in Physis Capital.

“We are confident we will be able to close the initial amount in about four months, primarily because of some active inbound interest already received,” Mittal informed.

The first milestone will be to close a transaction worth around USD 10 to 15 million. Physis Capital is looking for profitable investment possibilities, and some investors have already committed.

“They agree that these are great opportunities. So we may actually go for the first close in about four months instead of typical 6-7 months’ time. That’s what we are targeting,” Mittal said, adding that while more clarity will emerge in the next few weeks, the fund expects to start deployment of capital latest by October this year.

“However, there are certain businesses we will avoid. We don’t want to fund capex-heavy businesses or businesses which don’t have positive unit economics for a long term,” he clarified.

Companies focused on social content would be an area of interest so far as capital deployment is concerned. “…because we still believe that there’s a lot of scope in social content yet to be seen, especially in India. And some of the startups in that space have done very well,” Mittal explained.

The total amount of $50 million will be deployed by Physis Capital in the next three years.

Tech Mahindra launches technology development centre in Oman

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June 6, 2022

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Tech Mahindra Ltd. inaugurated an innovation and technology development centre, in Muscat, Oman.

Using artificial intelligence (AI), big data & analytics, cloud, and 5G technologies, the centre will serve telecommunications, oil and gas, banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI), energy & utilities, and public sectors.

This is in accordance with Tech Mahindra’s commitment to invest in local talent’s upskilling and reskilling to take on projects in Oman and worldwide.

“I believe the vision of Oman based on the pillars of ‘People and Society’, ‘Economy and Development’, and ‘Governance and Institutional Performance’ will transform and enhance the country’s economy. Tech Mahindra is pleased to play a part in this strategic narrative and support in building a resilient tomorrow for Oman, that thrives on growth & innovation, with a keen focus on empowering women,” said CP Gurnani, managing director and chief executive, Tech Mahindra.

“As a global organisation, we are committed to honing talent across geographies, and our initiatives have been warmly embraced in Oman. This innovation and development centre will grow Omani talent in the technology industry and will enable us to leverage it for markets globally,” Gurnani added.

Tech Mahindra already has a significant footprint in Oman, and the recently opened research and development centre is just another step in contributing to the country’s development by leveraging its youthful talent, according to Ram Ramachandran, Tech Mahindra’s head of the Middle East and Africa.

Tech Mahindra also unveiled Maker’s Lab, a research and development unit within the centre that would focus on developing IPs, solutions, and services that harness the power of technology to allow digital transformation, smart enterprise solutions, cloud transformation, big data, and analytics.

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